Learn how to set achievable business goals, how to stay committed to the goals you set, and how to make this year a successful year for your business.

How to turn your business ideas into action

Webinar

In this Lunch and Learn, Patricia van den Akker dives into how to set truly captivating and SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) goals for 2025. She also gives her tips on how to stay committed to them.

, an online business school for designers, makers and creative professionals. For over 25 years, she has worked with thousands of creatives as a creative business adviser, trainer and coach.

Enterprise Nation is the UK's most active small business network, helping thousands of people turn their good idea into a great business. 

to get everything you need to start and grow your small business, in one place.

Lunch and Learn: How to turn your business ideas into action

Get ready to make 2025 a year of remarkable accomplishments and fulfil your business aspirations.

Enterprise Nation has helped thousands of people start and grow their businesses. Led by founder, Emma Jones CBE, Enterprise Nation connects you to the resources and expertise to help you succeed.

Staying positive and in profit in 2025

Emma Jones covers techniques to keep your outlook positive and business in profit for the year ahead.

Lorna Bladen is the Chief of Marketing at Enterprise Nation. Lorna has over ten years of experience working in marketing. 

Previous roles include:
- Head of Marketing at Escape The City
- Head of Partnerships at Moneypenny
- Freelance marketing consultant
- Marketing lead at StartUp Britain

Lorna is based in Brighton, West Sussex and is open to supporting small businesses across the UK.

Chief Marketing Officer

Women in Business network 

Get involved to meet like-minded business owners across the UK, collaborate and troubleshoot, we are all in this together.

Tax advice

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This service is for small businesses in London looking for accountancy and tax support.
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Serial entrepreneur and innovation director across multiple verticals, with a technology and sector agnostic approach to consulting. Currently consulting to various ventures ie Medtech, CPG, FMCG, Fintech, Adtech, HeathTech etc

Having been deeply immersed in the Startup / SME EcoSystem for approximately 25 years, in 2 distinct sectors and countries with various business models. Providing both product / services for b2b and b2b segments has allowed me to gain a solid amount of diverse knowledge and understanding.
This entrepreneurial experience also allowed to gain insights of the innovation value chain and operational requirements of building / scaling ventures, for product market fit. The critical component of fundraising through various mechanisms, is an area that I understand well, having bootstrapped businesses and then raised circa 3m Euros across angel, Venture Capital and the European Development Fund (EDF).
The full spectrum of the fund-raising process was arguably the most challenging aspect of venture building for a multitude of reasons and it was a definite grind to get it done. Learning to dealing with brutal reality was a crucial part of success and helped test / fortify my resilience and growth mindset.
The last venture Zveetz had a regenerative aspect with a mission to make a dent against sugar pollution and its consequences to people and planet. Working cross functionally with a stellar team of individuals including food and behavioural scientists to deliver an impactful value proposition was highly rewarding. The business model was multifaceted with transactional, subscription and asymmetrical revenue streams. We were able to move the needle on sugar reduction and enabled people to be more sugar smart, thereby hitting multiple impact and revenue KPI’s.
Previously to that, I had the privilege of deep diving into the world of AI, machine learning &amp; ontologies to build a recommendation engine SaaS for the e-commerce sector, although there were multiple future use cases for the technology. This immersion and venture was very challenging for multiple reasons but ultimately the outcomes were net positive, so the juice was worth the squeeze.
hankfully, I have been able to transition into the role of an Innovation Director and apply skills / experience to provide consultation across the Oxford Innovation ecosystem to various stakeholders.&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>Performed 96 one to one business support sessions and workshops for students, faculty, startup and SMEs teams.</li>
<li>Consulting with the KTP (Knowledge Transfer Partnerships) department to revamping program offering and positioning to meet desired Research Excellence Framework (REF 29) standards.</li>
<li>Supporting faculty members across the UnIversity’s different schools, on commercialisation of their research and various potential fund-raising strategies.</li>
<li>Working with the AI Research group within the University to develop their strategic roadmap.</li>
<li>Supporting the establishment of “Managementfest”, a student led innovation &amp; entrepreneurship conference and accelerator programme at BNU.</li>
<li>Regularly meeting with the university leadership committee to report all innovation initiatives and results.</li>
<li>Leading Oxford Innovation AI working group with a remit to i) develop a wholistic adoption strategy for competitive advantage. ii) Steering AI integration and operationalisation across the org, towards ISO42001 (trustworthy) compliance.</li>
</ul>

Innovation Director

Vishal Kawatra

Serial entrepreneur and innovation director across multiple verticals, with a technology and sector agnostic approach to consulting. Currently consulting to various ventures ie Medtech, CPG, FMCG, Fintech, Adtech, HeathTech etc

Having been deeply immersed in the Startup / SME EcoSystem for approximately 25 years, in 2 distinct sectors and countries with various business models. Providing both product / services for b2b and b2b segments has allowed me to gain a solid amount of d

How to turn your business ideas into action

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